The United States has experienced many changes in the last 15 years. Most schools and school districts in America have seen drastic changes in their funding, their students, and in the requirements placed upon them by NCLB and now Common Core.

With the new school year fast approaching, I can already feel the jarring shift from attentive husband and doting dad to harried English teacher. I know I’ll soon be lost in trying to grade a set of essays, plan a new lesson on subject/verb agreement, prep for club meetings, and cheer on my students in their extracurricular endeavors. Every year I lose track of aspects of family life that have been so wonderful all summer. This year I am trying to make some changes to my teacher work-life balance.

All online teachers seek a work life balance. Few attain it, especially early in their online careers. It is easy to be 'on' 24x7. What promises do you make to yourself and your family as the new semester begins?

"Our study indicates that increases in gun violence in our schools can result from disappointment and despair during periods of increased unemployment...."

Dr. Richard NeSmith's insight:

Here is a new study on gun violence in schools. I think the researchers are a little off on this as I have spent some time studying this as well. Most shootings seem to be among middle class schools and I, honestly, have not seen a tie between job availability being a factor. Of course, I may have missed something. Nevertheless, we need to know all we can to try to prevent this from becoming common place.

Here are the other things that matter: Helping a group of students work through a disagreement civilly. Keeping everyone calm when someone vomits on the floor. Watching the shyest student in your class, the one who never ever spoke back in September, volunteer to read a part in The Crucible — and he’s hilarious, and he does it with an accent, and he makes two new friends because he finally let himself be vulnerable.

Your job is so much more than test scores, meaningless goals, and cyclical initiatives. It is tying shoelaces and distributing Band-Aids. It is listening to a parent cry about her crumbling marriage. It is showing teenagers how to debate thoughtfully, how to think critically, how to disagree respectfully. It is hearing from students ten years after graduation, because they just thought you should know it was your Spanish class that made them want to study abroad, your passion for science that led to a major in biochemistry, your quiet encouragement during their dark days that convinced them to keep coming to school in the first place.

Where does that fall on the “highly effective” checklist? How can you document that kind of delayed impact? It certainly can’t be measured by A’s and E’s, or even by weekly walk-throughs. It’s no wonder you’re getting frustrated.

It’s no wonder you don’t want to do this anymore.

But if these are the reasons you might leave, here is the reason you might stay: the kids, man. The kids. After a year without them, you might miss their unbridled school spirit during Homecoming Week, their contagious sense of humor, the way they draw pictures for you and wave joyous hellos in the hallways. You might miss their ability to make you forget about the rough start to your morning, or the looks of awe on their captivated faces when they finally learn something that matters.

If it weren’t for them, instead of Googling “I don’t want to teach anymore,” you might already be gone.

I can remember spending almost a full period on one short paragraph while reading about endothermic and exothermic reactions in science class. We spent time highlighting, underlining, making connections to things we already knew, asking questions in the margins, defining words and more. The room might as well have smelled of smoke— these kids were thinking, brains-on-fire style! They were struggling…PRODUCTIVELY! I was hooked, and unbelievably, so were they. I heard several kids exclaim, “Ohhhhhhh, I get it.”

Activity: Simulating a Connectivist Learning Environment In preparation for Extended Session for Learning2 Asia 2016 (October 6-8, 2016) Purpose The purpose of this activity is for the participants to have a shared experience which can then be used to provide illustrations and examples as w

Earlier this week, Oxford's Bodleian Library announced that it had digitized a 550 year old copy of the Gutenberg Bible along with a number of other ancient bibles, some of them quite beautiful. Not to be outdone, the British Library came out with its own announcement on Thursday:

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